Artificial Intelligence Making Headways in Healthcare

Artificial Intelligence when appropriately utilized has the power to enhance any business. When it comes to healthcare, transforming data into useful information can reduce cost, enhance patient’s health and provide employee satisfaction. On the flip side, a mere confusion can lead to pitfalls, and that is precisely why Artificial Intelligence (AI) is considered a blessing to the healthcare sector.

AI can reform medicine with its ability to fill the data gaps that humans cannot collect and process. Gartner predicts that by 2021 there is a 10 percent chance for wearable devices to change users’ behaviors resulting in lifespan extension by a minimum of six months and by 2020, third-party AI cloud services will be utilized by almost 60 percent of personal technology device vendors to improve functionality and services.

AI enables doctors and healthcare professionals to gain more information about individual patients, which will help in diagnosing patients with unique solutions instead of providing general care and allows producing accurate reports. This, in turn, can result in a healthy doctor-patient relationship.

Amidst these advancements, drug counterfeiting has become a major threat to the healthcare industry as consuming wrong medicines could be fatal. In developing countries, almost 10-30 percent of drugs are counterfeited. It has become challenging for the government to bring drug counterfeiting under control, as even today discerning the number of patients exposed to this crime is a daunting task. With $200 billion global annual loss caused owing to drug counterfeiting, it is imperative for the pharmaceutical industry to bring in a new system to put an end to this fatal offense. With its deep learning in managing drug supplies and transactions to identify false medicines, AI is gaining popularity in counterfeit drug prevention.

AI helps in storing patients’ personal information, as re-admission in emergency cases is a common thing in healthcare. AI can detect medical fraud and identity theft. It can also save the industry from data breaches. All in all, AI is making headways into the industry help companies address three primary challenges: healthcare costs, quality, and patient outcomes.